If any of you follow us on Instagram, you may know of my horribly failed attempt at sewing up butterfly wings for Charlie's Halloween costume. To be honest, I'm not even sure if she really wanted to be a butterfly, but she likes to flap her "wings" when wearing a hooded towel after bath time, so it seemed like as good an idea as any.

Looking back, the project was doomed from the start. On Monday, I had a mere 15 minutes to shop on Fabric Row and grab all of the blue and green polyester sparkle and sequins I could get my hands on. I then set to work, late at night, long after dark, with no plan, no idea, and most importantly, no base fabric to both hold the terrible stretchy sparkly mess, and give me (and my dear machine) a break. Note to Self: The ability to sew garments for myself out of natural fibers does not a successful last-minute polyester & sequins Halloween costume make. Needless to say, I was one of the (surprisingly many) sad souls wandering through the nearly-empty Halloween aisle of Target last night desperately grasping for something toddler-appropriate that looked vaguely like a butterfly. Jury is still out on whether or not Charlie will wear what I bought. (I'm sure if you check instagram, you'll find out!)

What I should have done, instead of failing at a costume, was start early, plan ahead, and knit Charlie the adorable My Fair Maiden tunic by Meg Roke out of Canopy Fingering.

The perfect balance of simple & cute, the My Fair Maiden tunic is a nod to Fairy Tales without being too over the top (way more than I can say for those store-bought costumes. Shudder.)